Doomed Confessionary: Ina Salaj (Crimson Roots)

Photos by Frank Kreuzer

Crimson Roots are a blues-inspired progressive and psychedelic rock quintet from Nuremberg, Germany. Their music combines blues and classic rock foundations with progressive arrangements, psychedelic atmosphere, expressive guitar work and warm organ sounds.

Formed in 2024, the band features Ina Salaj on vocals, Kristi Dhimitri on guitar, Kolja Becker on bass, Idris Voegli on keyboards/organ, and David Vinogradov on drums.

Crimson Roots released their debut album »Open Roads« in physical format on May 22nd, 2026 via Tonzonen Records / Cargo Records. Following its release, the band has built a growing live presence through club, festival and open-air shows across Germany and France.

»Open Roads« is a concept album about movement, change, and the search for meaning. It follows a traveling figure – who could be a single person, many people, the listener, or even the band itself – on a journey through uncertainty, collapse, resistance, and renewal. Each song is a separate chapter in this journey, in which inner and outer movement constantly mirror one another.

Can you please say a few words about your band?
Crimson Roots is a rock band from Nuremberg, Germany. Our music is rooted in blues rock, that’s mainly the inspiration we take from, but we mix it with psychedelic and progressive elements, and this combination is becoming even stronger with the new material we are writing and producing. We released our first album »Open Roads« through Tonzonen Records, and since then we have been playing as much as possible, because for us the live side of the band, playing shows, being on the road, meeting new people and touching people’s emotions with our music is very important.

What was the biggest challenge for the band?
Hmmm, I would say probably building everything from the beginning in a relatively short time. We are still a young band, so in the beginning we had to figure out not only how we wanted to sound, and finding ourselves since we do come from a bit of different musical backgrounds but also how we wanted to perform, how to make our shows engaging, giving them a story, dressing up to perform, how to organize ourselves and how to become better together on stage. Playing many shows this past yeard helped us a lot with that.

What can you be most proud of so far?
I think how much we have managed to do in such a short time. Releasing our first album, getting it into magazines such as Classic Rock, Eclipsed and GoodTimes, receiving generally very good positive reviews, signing with Tonzonen Records, and especially playing so many shows. Bardentreffen in Nuremberg was definitely one of those moments where I looked at the stage and the audience and thought, okay, we really built something here, and our work had paid of, and we of course love what we do, and moving forward now, since we also have a booking agent for Europe, we want to play bigger shows, festivals, venues, and tour for our upcoming album, which we are still working very hard for the last couple of months, while playing shows almost every week.

What was your biggest regret?
I don’t think I have one big regret with the band so far. Maybe sometimes I wish we had started some things earlier or had been a little more patient with some decisions, we released the album in a relative very short time, as we wanted our music to be heard so badly in the beginning, so I wouldn’t say we rushed it, but we definitely could have been more patient, include some things that we wish we had now that we think back, but at the same time you learn only by doing things. I would rather make a decision, learn from it and move forward than spend too much time wondering, ohh what could have happened!

What was the best concert/tour so far and why?
I would pick a few, first the concert in Rennes, France, it was kind of special for us playing for the first time outside Germany, and we played in such a cool place, at the Conservatoire de Rennes, for so many modern music students, and it was definitely thrilling, but in the end they enjoyed it so much, and we made so many good friends, that truly enjoyed our music. Another show that we had a lot of fun nad it went great is Bardentreffen in Nuremberg was definitely one of the most special shows for us. It is a festival where many musicians take the streets, and stage and we knew long before we ever imagined playing there ourselves, we played in one of the major stages and seeing so many people in front of us was a great feeling.

What was the biggest surprise on the music scene for you?
We started the band, without knowing much about the music scene. It was very surprising learning right away how much interest there still is in this kind of music,that we make. I come from a small country like Albania originally, so rock music in general is not that popular, nowdays, there is also no underground rock music scene, everything is either Pop or Hip Hop. But even in the mainstream media sometimes you hear that rock is dead or that younger bands playing blues rock, psychedelic or progressive underground music have a very limited audience, but our experience has been quite different. We meet people of completely different ages at our shows, and there are also many young bands taking inspiration from older music without simply copying it.

What is currently in your heavy musical rotation?
I have been listening to a lot of Siena Root recently. I saw them live for the first time this summer and since then I’ve gone back through their music quite a bit. Rosalie Cunningham has also been in my rotation, especially because we will support her in a show in Stuttgart in October, I really enjoy how she mixes progressive and psychedelic ideas. Then I always come back to bands like early Sabbath and Led Zeppelin. I think my listening usually moves between those older records and newer bands that take something from that era but still have their own identity. I have also listened recently some newer bands that are very active and we associate a lot and would want to perform with them in the future, like Wucan, Blues Pills, Kadavar, some Wolfmother etc…

What was the best advice you’ve ever been given as a musician?
Probably not to wait until everything feels perfect before you do something. You can rehearse forever, but eventually you have to play the show, release the song and see what happens. Especially with Crimson Roots, we have learned so much more from actually being on stage than we ever could have learned by staying in the rehearsal room.

What are your guilty pleasures?
I dont really believe too much in guilty pleasures when it comes to music. If I like something, I like it! But outside music, probably spending far too much time looking for stage clothes and convincing myself that another pair of boots is somehow necessary for the band.

Can you say something more about the current music scene in Nuremberg?
Nuremberg has a very active music scene, especially when you also include Fürth and Erlangen around it. There are many small venues, cultural centres, festivals and independent promoters, and a lot of different styles exist next to each other.

The issue is though, it is mostly not in rock genres, or it does not have that underground feeling where lots of psych bands rise, or proper original rock bands for that matter. For us, places like MUZ for example, we have been associated, but we have not really been supported as a rising act from Nuremberg, especially because the city was famously known for Rock a decade ago, things now have shifted, we are not on their priorities, so I would say we have tried so hard to get outside this music scene, Bavarian scene, with lots of smaller festivals dedicated to our music is better, but our local scene, we would have appreciated their support in the beginning. We also have festivals such as Bardentreffen, which brings a huge amount of live music into the city every summer although again, it is not very specialized in rock genres.

Where can we see you live this year (concerts/tours)?
We still have several shows coming up in Germany this year, including Eber-Hart Festival on September 5 and FairFestival in Mömlingen on September 12, as well as further club shows, including a support show for Rosalie Cunningham in Stuttgart.

We are also already working heavily on 2027, because next year we want to play more festivals and travel much further outside our region, of course we have taken a liking and we would love to perform on festivals such as Freak Valley, Burg Herzberg, and I want to make an official announcment for the very first time, we just recently got confirmed for the lineup of Finkenbach Festival. Of course, if we are on schedule with the new album, releasing it by summer 2027, we will have a special tour around in Germany to promote it.

What are your plans for the future as a band?
The biggest thing now is our second album. We already have most of the songs ready, we have been rehearsing them and we are playing several of the new songs live before recording them, as many will evolve with time.

Musically, I think the next record will go further into the psychedelic and progressive side of Crimson Roots while still keeping the blues foundation. It will definitely be heavier, and we are looking forward how it will turn out. We also want to play much more outside Germany and make 2027 our strongest live year so far.

How can people best support your band?
Come to a show. That is probably the best support you can give us.
Of course listening to the music, buying a record, we offer both LP Vinyl and CD’s, in our website, bandcamp or through Tonzonen Records website. Wollowing us or sharing a song helps enormously too, but when somebody discovers us online and then actually comes to see us live, that means a lot. And tell somebody else about a band you like. Word of mouth is still very important for bands like us.

Do you have any message for your listeners?
Thank you to everyone who has already listened to »Open Roads«, bought the record, come to a show or simply told somebody else about Crimson Roots. We are still at a very early stage as a band, so we notice every bit of support.

There is a lot more coming. We are writing, playing and experimenting all the time, and I think the next chapter of Crimson Roots will show much more of what this band can become.

And thank you Bojan for inviting us to the Doomed Confessionary!

Links:
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Bojan Bidovc // music enthusiast, promoter, misanthrop and sometimes a journalist as well